Motion picture film



Jan. 19, 1932. D. BENSEL .MOTION PICTURE FILM Filed Oct. 10, 1928 Patented Jan. 19, 1932 PATENT OFFICE DUB/YEA BENSEL, OF NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY MOTION PEC'IURE FILl'vi Application filed October 10, 1928. Serial No. 311,643.

This invention relates to motion picture film, of the type marginally reinforced for fortifying the sprocket-hole edges and also the film material between the SPXGCIIGCdlClQS.

It has been proposed thus to reinforce a film, by using a thin metal or other suit-able reinforcing strip or structure extended along a marginal portionof the film and having openings exposing said holes, and by using means includingtabs or tongues for coupling the strip to the filmwhich tabs or tongues,

however, have always been fiat and consequently have had their terminal portions merely folded over along a straight line of bend relative to their shank portions in finally applying the tabs or tongues as the in tended securing devices.

The present invention provides an improved coupling device, and one which may be of the tab or tongue type, for really socuring the strip on the film against creep or shift, and for safely attaining this securement, because including shank and terminal portions so shaped that the terminal portion must be bent along, or more accurately, deformed or distorted relative to, a nonstraight line, in finally applying the securing device. There is thus finally established a non-straight line of joinder between the shank and terminal portions of the securing device, with the terminal portion of said device in the plane of said non-straight line as the result of being reshapingly squeezed to a permanent set in that plane. In other words, said terminal portion is molecularly worked or truly lock-clenched into parallelism with the flat of the film.

Such lock-clench, I have found, is so tenaciously maintained, during reeling and unreeling of the film, and during the passage of the film through the projecting machine, as to perfectly withstand any accidentally applied distortive forces, including those, arising from a sharp curvature given to the film, its passing over various guiding and feeding instrumentalities, and its vibration at the intermittent mechanism, which in practice have proven fatal to the use of a tab or tongue as proposed in the art, because bending or warping the m ely bentdown terminal portion of the tab or tongue angularly away from the film and thereby or shortly thereafter destroying or injuring the reinforcing strip, the film and the projection machine.

Several practicable embodiments of the invention would involve passing a shank portion of a securing device through a sprocket-hole in the film. For instance, the new securing device could conveniently be tubular and shaped to fit nicely within the entire sprocket-hole; or such securing device could be provided as a tab or tongue laterally rounded or angled, to fit within a rounded or an led corner of the sprocket hole. A simple straight line of bend for the terminal portion, in finally applying such a securing device, would obviously be impossible.

In the accompanying drawings, three of the various possible forms of the invention of the kind last above described, are illustrated in exemplification and not in delimitation of the invention; it being understood that the protection contemplated is to be taken solely from the appended claims.

In said drawings,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view, showing a length of film reinforced by a marginal strip, and securing devices of tubular type passing through sprocket-holes of the film but nonintegral with the strip;

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the same film and strip, and securing devices of tubular type but unitary with the strip;

Fig. 4: is a section on line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the same film and strip, but illustrating a seouring means, integral with the strip, of the tab or tongue type; and

Fig. 6 is a section on line 66 of Fig. 5.

In all these views, only a half-width of the icngth of lm (7) is illustrated; the line 8 indicating the center-line of the film.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the marginal reinforcing trip is shown at 9, and the securing means -.t 10. The strip 9 having an opening cut herethrough to match each sprocket-hole in film, the shank portion 10a of the securmeans is shown fitted nicely within these luu matched apertures; and, in order to show the reinforced film with the securing means finally applied thereto, both terminal portions of each securing m ans are illustrated as lockclenched in place, the terminal portion 10?) over the strip 9, and the terminal portion 100 over the film 7.

In Figs. 3 and e, the marginal reinforcing strip is shown at 11, and the securing means at 12. Here, since each securing means 12 is formed integral with strip 11 incident to the provision of the strip-opening to match the sprocket-hole through which the shank portion 12a of said securing means is passed, the securing means includes merely said shank portion and one terminal portion to be headed and, in order to show the reinforced film with the securiir means finally applied thereto, this terminal port-ion is illustrated at 12?) as being finally lock-clenched in place over the film 7 In Figs. 5 and 6, the marginal reinforcing strip is shown at 13, and the securing means at 1e and 15. Here, since each securing means 14 and 15 is formed integral with the strip 13, incident to the provision in part of an opening in the strip to match a sprocket-hole in the film through which a pair of the securing means 14 and 15 are passed to lie at diagonally opposite corners of said hole, each securingmeans 14 and 15 includes, in addition to its shank portion 14a or 15a extended through said hole, merely one terminal portion to be headed; and, in order to show the reinforced film with the securing means finally applied thereto, such terminal portion of a securing means 14 is illustrated at 147) and such terminal portion of a securing means 15 is illustrated at 15?), both lock-clenched in place over the film 7.

Very thin soft sheet brass is recommended as the material for the reinforcing strip and the securing means; although of course any other suitable material or materials may be employed.

I claim:

1. The combination with a film having substantially rectangular sprocket holes adj a cent its side edges, of a reinforcing strip of relatively thin flexible metal extending longitudinally along one face of the film adjacent a side edge thereof and overlying a line of sprocket holes, said strip having substantially rectangular openings re istering with the respective holes of said line, and means integral. with the strip for securing the same to the film, said means comprising shank portion projected angularly from the strip and extending continuously and unbrokenly around a corner of an opening and through a sprocket hole, said shank portion substantially fitting the corner of the sprocket hole, and a flange portion formed as an integral extension of said shank portion and clinched neeaeeo down toward the film substantially parallel to the metallic strip.

2. The combination with a film having a line of substantially rectangular sprocket holes adjacent a side edge, of a reinforcing strip of relatively thin flexible metal extending longitudinally along one face of the film and overlying said sprocket holes, said strip being formed with substantially rectangular openings each registering with one of said sprocket holes, and means for attaching the reinforcing strip to the film, said attaching means including securing devices formed integrally with the strip, said devices comprising upstanding shank portions formed about corners of said openings and extending into and through the registering sprocket holes and shaped to conform substantially to the corners thereof, and flange portions swagcd from prolongations of said shank portions to lie substantially parallel with the strip and adjacent the film, which flange portions have a superficial area after swaging appreciably greater than the superficial area of that portion of the strip from which said flange portions were formed, and which flange portions further have non-straight lines of joinder with said shank portions.

3. The combination with a film having a line of substantially rectangular sprocket holes adjacent a side edge thereof, of a reinforcing strip of relatively thin flexible metal extending longitudinally along one face of the film overlying the said line of sprocket holes, said strip having a plurality of substantially rectangular openingseach registering with one of the sprocket holes in the said line, and means for attaching the reinforcing strip to the film, said attaching means including a shank portion formed integrally with and extending angularly from the strip, said shank portion being peripherally continuous around the opening in the strip and extending through the registering sprocket hole in the film. and a flange portion integral with said shank portion and clinched down toward the film substantially parallel to said strip.

4. The combination with a film having a line of substantially rectangular sprocket holes adjacent a side edge. of a reinforcing strip of relatively thin flexible metal extending longitudinally along one face of the film and overlying said sprocket holes, said strip being formed with substantially rectangular openings each registering with one of said sprocket holes, and means for attaching the reinforcing strip to the film, said attaching means including securing devices formed integrally with the strip, said devices comprising upstanding shank portions formed peripherally continuous about said openings and extending into and through the registering sprocket holes and shaped to conform substantially to the corners thereof, and flange portions swaged from prolongations of the said shank portions to lie substantially parallel with the strip and adjacent the film, which flange portions have non-straight lines of joinder with the shank portions.

5. The combination with a film having a line of substantially rectangular sprocket holes adjacent a side edge thereof of a reinforcing strip of relatively thin flexible metal extending longitudinally Wholly along one face of the film overlying the said line of sprocket holes, said strip having a plurality of substantially rectangular openings each registering with one of the sprocket holes in the said line, and means for attaching the reinforcing strip to the film, said attaching means including a shank portion formed integrally with and extending angularly from the strip, said shank portion being peripherally continuous around the opening in the strip and extending through the registering sprocket hole in the film, and a flange portion integral With said shank portion and drawn and clinched down in an unbroken bead toward the film substantially parallel to said strip. 7

DURYEA BENSEL. 

